Another Car Rises

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A week ago I wrote about skeletal remains being found in two sunken cars that were recently discovered in an Oklahoma reservoir called Foss Lake.  It is thought that the discovery of the two cars, a 1952 Chevrolet and a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, will close cases on six individuals who have been missing for decades.   The cars were discovered next to each other in the murky water at a depth of twelve feet and just fifty feet from a marina and boat ramp.  The discovery was made by police who were testing new sonar equipment.

Now another submerged car has been found.   A fisherman discovered the wheel of a 1960 Studebaker Lark protruding from the surface of a creek that he was fishing near Beresford, South Dakota.   The license plate on the car matches that of one that was being driven by a high school girl as she and her female passenger were heading to a party at a gravel pit in 1971.   The car was found just a half a mile from the place where the party was held.  Both girls were seventeen at the time. 

All three of those sunken cars could have been, and probably were, the result of accidents.

The strange disappearance of Randy Leach, however, may not have been accidental.   Young Mr. Leach, aged 18, was at a “pre-graduation” party at the home of a classmate on April 15^th, 1988.  He disappeared sometime after midnight, in what was described by some as a distressed condition due to alcohol or drugs - and was never seen again.   There were over a hundred people at the poorly supervised party, many of whom were not members of the class preparing to graduate at the small Linwood, Kansas, high school.  Stories coming out of the event touched on romance gone wrong, possible drug deals being stumbled upon, kids with cruel intentions, and satanic cult activities – all quite incongruent with the rural nature of Linwood.

There is an abundance of murky water within the vicinity of where that party occurred, and chances are that Randy Wayne Leach is resting somewhere beneath the muck and muddy water of a local river, lake, or farm pond.  Whether Randy died by drunken misadventure or was the victim of a murder, his parents, Harold and Alberta Leach, desperately need and deserve some closure. 

May Randy’s be the next car to rise from the dark waters.